A brief glance at country music's crop of new stars—Kacey Musgraves, Hunter Hayes, Dustin Lynch, etc.—might have you thinking fame and success come quickly in that line of work. But then there's Little Big Town. Fourteen years after forming, the harmony-heavy foursome, comprised of Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, and Phillip Sweet, dropped their most successful album to date in last year's Tornado. The album, highlighted by Grammy-winning single "Pontoon," hit number two on the Billboard 200. The morning after the CMT Awards, during which Little Big Town performed a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" with upcoming tour mate Keith Urban, we hopped on the line with Fairchild to talk love, acting, and hard-fought success.

Your performance with Keith Urban of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" was a pleasant surprise.

We had the pleasure of singing it with [Fleetwood Mac guitarist] Lindsey Buckingham probably five or six years ago on a CMT Crossroads special. And ever since then we've added it in and out of our set list because the fans that got to see that keep demanding that it come back into the set list. So we've been performing it on the tour this year and CMT saw it and wanted us to do it on the show.

Any post-show after-parties last night we should know about?

I hate to be boring, but because we're hosting CMA Fest this week for ABC we went home. We hung out in the dressing room for a little and talked about the performance and got a little wine and whiskey and then went home.

That's not boring at all! Speaking of Keith Urban, you'll be hitting the road pretty hard with him soon.

It's been a long time since we've been on the road with him. Probably our first arena tour we ever played [in 2005] was with Keith. We're just such big fans of him—as a person, as an entertainer, a songwriter, and a player. To be back on the road with him is gonna be great. It's gonna be inspiring, challenging. I mean, when you open up for Keith you've got to bring it every night.

Little Big Town has been around for 14 years. Does that make your recent success all the more satisfying?

Yes. We started off in a van with two guitars just dreaming about how we could grow our music and get out to the people—sing, play, and write songs. To be on this level now at this point in our career, I don't know if it could be any better? We just have such appreciation for the highs and the lows, the ebb and flow of how a career can go. We've experienced all those ups and downs. That's why right now we're loving every minute of it.

Did you have an inclination that a song like "Pontoon" was going to connect with fans?

When we heard it we thought, "This is special. And it's kinda crazy and just wacky enough to be a monster summer song." I don't think we knew the level of how big that song was going to be though. You kind of feel a gut feeling about it. But we've also been dead wrong about songs. You write something, love it so much, and think it's going to have that same kind of commercial success. And then it doesn't. But it doesn't change the passion for the song for us or the satisfaction as an artist of recording it. You just kind of write it off and say, "It is what it is" and move on.

Your latest single, "On Your Side of the Bed," is quite personal. In fact, we heard someone who overheard you play it in the studio thought you and husband and bandmate Jimi Westbrook were having marital problems.

[Laughs] Yeah. When we cut the vocal the first couple of times, we were all in the room together and everybody's singing and playing their hearts out and afterwards [our guitarist] Johnny turned to us and said, "Are you guys okay?" And we started busting out laughing. That song just takes you there. And if you've been in any kind of long relationship you have to have felt some kind of disconnect at some point with the person that you love. And sometimes you don't want to be disconnected. It just happens. And yet you're lying next to them. That song touches on that nerve. It's fun for us to play those roles. It's storytelling. It's a bit of acting. And every night we get to play out those parts.

You guys took home an ACM award and even a Grammy for 'Tornado.' It must be quite validating.

When you're younger and you're making music at home, or you're in high school and you're playing your instrument and you think, "What would it be like to be up there and win an award?" And then when you're making a record, you try for it not to creep into the room. But you can't help but wonder what a Grammy would look like on the shelf. So yeah, it's been the ultimate pat on the back. We sure have loved clearing off shelf space this year.

Lastly, how much writing do you guys do on the road? Any work completed yet for a new album?

We're just diving into that process right now. Individually we've been putting together ideas. After CMA stuff this week I think we'll get serious about themes, what we want to write about. We'll start that process in the next few weeks and then really get after it for the rest of the year.